The Quaking Aspen Tree

Dear Family,

Congratulations on your mission call, Michaela! Don't forget to have fun on your mission!

This week has been good. Elder Palmer and I had a lot of lessons set for this week, but a lot of them fell through. We had a good zone training on Wednesday. Elder Lowry came up with a cool analogy to explain how missionaries need to have faith in their missionary efforts. If a man was watering a quaking aspen tree, he needed to have the water in his bucket to do it. The water is faith. Missionaries can throw a bucket of water to help the tree grow, or they can do the motions with an empty bucket. The thing about the quaking aspen tree is that it has the same roots as the other quaking aspen trees. They are all one organism, so by watering at one tree, the water can benefit other areas that the man is unaware of. That is so true! As a missionary, I don't always see the direct fruits of my labor, but I can trust that my faith and obedience is benefiting someone else out there. I wonder how else this analogy can be applied to life.

The mission devotional is only one week away and that means that Elder Palmer and I have to select the videos for it. On Sunday night, we went into the office to select the videos. It was interesting. Usually, it takes over and hour to select the videos, choosing between many different kinds, but this time, it went very fast. I only looked at 5 videos and I knew which ones we would use. I felt like I was just guided to each of the videos that need to be in the devotional. I can't wait to see how it benefits the people that will be coming next week!

I love you all! Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Bretton Steiner.

This is the largest ant hill I have ever seen! Don't walk up to that! The ants will attack and bite you! Elder Palmer joked about torching it.

This was totally not planned. This is just what happens when P-Days are on Tuesdays and Cafe Rio has $5 burritos. All the missionaries around town come to eat! (Somehow at the same time)